As they trudged through the debris, she felt her feet crunching against the broken glass and concrete as they made their way up the path leading from Tavia’s home to the top of the hill where the heliport was located; she looked back as she took in what has become of the once thriving city, now known as the dystopian wasteland, she felt a sense of dread wash over her. The buildings still stood were hollow shells of their former selves, their walls blackened and crumbled from years of neglect. The sky was overcast, casting a dim light on the desolate wasteland before her. She could barely distinguish the shapes of rusted vehicles scattered throughout the area, their metal frames twisted and bent beyond recognition. There were no signs of life anywhere. No birds chirping, no animals scurrying, no sounds of people talking. Although this planet hadn’t always been a desolate wasteland, Lorix was once a magnificent city with bustling streets filled with many advanced technologies and an excellent view for sore eyes. It was filled with people from all over the planet. Lorix was built to promote peace amongst the various people of the earth, but now its beautiful building and gorgeous sights were covered in layers of ash and soot, the remnants of the numerous fires ravaging the area.
“This used to be a great view,” Tavia said
“Yh, it’s seen better days,” Raven replied
They continued walking up the steep path up the mountain, which was lined with broken parts from robots and androids from wars passed. As they got to the top of the hill. Zander, with his arms covered in tattoos and his all-black outfit and a utility jacket endowed with numerous pockets, and a satchel across his waist, was a charismatic, quick-witted, slightly reckless rogue hacker, who worked for the government of the old world Kolton with his Calloused hands and muscular build is a brave, determined and selfless fighter who lost his family in the war. Since she formed a close bond with Tavia, Lyra was the crew medic; her previous experience as a medical researcher equipped her with skills to create makeshift medical materials from random items. She was considered the group's mother due to her compassionate personality and intellectual prowess. Walking next to her was Raven who was a government soldier who had a missing left arm and a scar over his face with his stoic, battle-hardened facial expression; he never seemed to smile, he was betrayed by his superiors during a mission, and finally, there was Tavia who was a military special forces agent before the world descended into chaos, she was the leader of this crew who sought to restore balance to their home planet Xorsa after it was destroyed by greed and war between several governments in a power struggle.
“Alas, sleeping beauty wakes,” Zander says as he raises his head from looking at a PDA strapped to his wrist,
“Haha, Good one,” Kolton replies, “Guess she didn’t need a prince after all,” Kolton remarks as zander laughs
“Leave her alone, guys, she had a long night,” Lyra says while walking over to Tavia with her head down and looking at a digital tablet, “How’d you sleep darling,” she asks while looking at her pale face
“Like a dead mech,” Tavia responds
“Great cause you’re about to have the longest fucking day of your life”, Raven says as he hands her a tablet he picks up from a table at the corner of the room
“What's this”, she asks as she looks at an ariel image of a vast wasteland with a crater in the middle,
“Trouble” Kolton replies
“Our radars picked up a disturbance in sector 7 this morning” Raven added
“Prolly just scavengers” Tavia notes
“That's what we thought, then we sent in a drone for ariel feed,” zander says as he walks over to the enormous screen in the centre of the room, he swipes on his arm PDA and a series of images show up on the screen “and then we found this”.
“Holy fuck, what is that?” Tavia exclaimed as she looks up at the images being displayed, they were similar to the ones she had seen on the tablet with the crater in the middle. Still, now they had purple glowing spores growing out of the hole and covering the land as it grew.
“That's the thing we have no idea, there are no records of this thing in our database” Zander Replies
“So it just fell out of the sky’ Tavia ask as she walks over to a charging station in the wall and places her gun in it. The weapon turns blue as it begins to charge.
“We detected it in the upper atmosphere today at 0750 three minutes later it made contact in sector 7” “this was at 0750 and thirty minutes later”, He swipes at the PDA, “it's this”, he shows an image of the crater fully covered in the spores as it kept growing and morphing all the plants into a strange looking structure that glowed the same purple shade as the initial site.
“Those are definitely not scavengers”, Tavia notes as she walks towards the screen.
“We do know one thing, it's fast”, Kolton adds, “And it's not from this planet”,
“Judging from its speed it’ll have all of sector 7 by 0900”, Raven adds.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“So what do you wanna do tav”, Zander asks
“Zander get the bird ready we’re off in 5”, Tavia answers.
“What, are you insane?”, Kolton asks “we don't know what that thing is it could be radioactive, or worse it could be aliens” he added
“Aliens, really you believe that crap?” Tavia replies
“I'm serious they’re real”, Kolton replied.
“Yh and I’m Santa Claus”, Tavia adds as she turns around to exit the room.
“The bird is ready”, zander says
“Thank you zander”, Tavia says, “Raven, Lyra you’re with me” she adds as she points to them,” Kolton stay here and keep an eye on things out there, let us know if you see any aliens coming our way”, She remarks mockingly, “Zander you're our eyes in the sky when we touch down”, she says while pointing at Zander, “and keep an eye on Kolton”, she added.
“I'm serious they’re real”, Kolton says in a defensive tone,
“Okay, I'll get an autograph if I find any”, Tavia says while giggling and walking towards the port.
They boarded the ship. Tavia was in the driver's cockpit with Raven and Lyra at the holographic maps and viewing system.
“System checks”, Tavia called out
“Cabin pressure, stable”, Raven responded
“Hydraulics is good to go”, Lyra added
“Okay team, strap in tight”, Tavia said while tapping the control panel in front
Raven and Lyra take their seats on either side of the cockpit behind Tavia and lock in their seat belts. Tavia, Raven, and Lyra took off in the speed dropship, the powerful engine pushing them forward at an incredible rate.
As they flew over sector 7, they saw the entire landscape covered in purple spores, mutated trees, and wreckage from vehicles and cyborgs. The evidence of a long-ago war was everywhere.
But there was something else there. Something they had never seen before. A strange purple cloud that seemed to be alive and growing.
"What is that?" Raven asked, his voice full of worry.
"I'm not sure," Tavia replied. "But whatever it is, it's spreading fast."
Lyra took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the arm of her chair. "Let's just check it out and get out of here," she said.
“Something about this place gives me the creeps”, Raven said,
As they flew closer, they could see the purple spores moving and creeping, as if they were searching for something. Zander's voice came over the ship's comms,
“Uhm Tav watch out”, Zander says over the comms, “I’m picking up multiple movements heading in your direction and they’re moving fast”
“Scavengers?”, Tavia asks over the comms,
“Can’t tell”, Zander replies, “ I detect 3 clusters from around you”,
“Buckle up guys this might be a party”, Raven says as he picks up his gun
Tavia lands the ship close to the edge of the crater and gets out. As they walk out they noticed the entire sector was covered in fog which made it quite hard for them to see.
“Visors.”, Tavia said as she clicked a button on her arm-strapped PDA, a blue holographic visor surrounded her head and Lyra and raven did the same.
Tavia, Raven, and Lyra stood at the edge of the crater, gazing down at the strange object that was at its centre. Suddenly, they heard the sound of footsteps and turned to see a team of Scavengers advancing towards them, armed with plasma rifles.
“Tav, I count a total of 7 scavenger groups heading towards your location and they are moving fast”, Zander says over the comms,
“Take cover, we’ve got company”, Tavia quickly ordered Raven and Lyra to take cover, and the three of them prepared for the fight.
“Cover?”, Raven asks, ”the party is only getting started”. Raven, who was the strongest of the three, stepped forward, brandishing his laser blaster. As the scavenger groups began to emerge from behind the tree cover and the fog that had been shielding them, he fired at the Scavengers, taking down several of them in quick succession. Meanwhile, Tavia and Lyra worked together, covering each other as they took shots at their opponents.
The Scavengers, however, were not easily defeated. Although Raven had torn through most of their defences, They regrouped and advanced once again, firing their plasma rifles with deadly precision. Raven took a hit, but Lyra was quickly at his side, healing him with her medical skills.
Just then from a distance came a familiar voice, “Regroup!”, as Tavia peeked to see who it was, she became furious as she saw the captain of the rebel forces, General Vayne, Tavia Jumped out from behind her cover and began firing at Vayne, killing any other scavenger who was in range.
“Tav, what are you doing?” Zander asks, “There's an entire army out there”,
The fight raged on, with neither side gaining the upper hand. Just as it seemed that the Scavengers were about to gain the advantage, the sound of laser blasts filled the air. The Rebels had arrived, and they were attacking both the Scavengers and the team of Tavia, Raven, and Lyra.
Lyra was shot as she tended to Raven's wounds.
“Tavia!”, Lyra screamed as she was about to get swarmed by federation troops
Tavia quickly jumped in to protect them both.
“Head for the ship, I’ll cover you guys!”, Tavia yelled as she signalled Lyra to head to the ship
She then turned around and fired upon the scavengers and federation troops. As laser blasts saturated the air around her, she slowly backed away and made her way back to the ship. Despite the intense fighting, they managed to make it to the drop ship, and Tavia was able to get them to safety.